Yes, we have been noticing the call letters being played over and over again. Tried to look up CRTC rulings against CFNY (sorry EDGE 102.1) a couple of weeks ago but no luck.
They are now looking at having a focus group and are soliciting people to join... do I see a format and name change coming soon???
Ok, at least it is a good rumour to start... hehe

I responded to join the focus group - if they let me in they'd better be prepared to get an earful.

What makes me nervous, though, is that the forum name on the invitation email was "Fox Rocks Forum". I'm hoping that was just the last group that used the consulting service and they forgot to change the name.

My gawd...I thought you guys were joking, but I just heard an ident with the CFNY calls in it. Whoa.

You know, I'm positive that there's a market for a real alternative station again. Just look at who the real buzz bands are these days: Broken Social Scene, The Arcade Fire, Death Cab for Cutie, the Weakerthans, Metric, Stars, Bedouin Soundclash, New Pornographers, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Constantines, TV on the Radio, The Rapture, !!!, etc.

A really smart radio station would let the Top 40 stations have Sum 41 and Simple Plan and The Trews and all that pop-punk wannabe crap, and chase the really underserved indie market. My gawd, even Our Lady Peace just ain't moving the sales anymore...so why bother playin' them?

There's a good article on the decline of Modern Rock radio in the current issue of Blender. Unfortunately the article's not online. Much of the blame lies with the mook-rock (Limp Bizkit etc) that dominated the airwaves through the late 90s.

Well, I have to give Alan Cross some credit...the station has been getting a bit more adventurous since he's been PD. Some of the bands I mentioned have been starting to show up in wider rotation. But it's not entirely his doing, either; the fact that cooler music's actually been getting attention lately is just the particular "Pitchfork, MP3 blogs and Coachella" zeitgeist that happened to land in Alan's lap.

He's made some good moves, but he's still reacting to outside trends. Which isn't the old Spirit, of course; CFNY in the Marsden days set many of the trends of its time.

I still usually leave my radio dial on Hedge 102, if only because almost everything else on the dial in Toronto is even worse. But a lot's gotta happen before I can honestly say I like the station again...